Gender Mirror: The Narrative and Metaphor of Feminist Films from the Perspective of Korean Male in “The Handmaiden”

Authors

  • Ruiling Liu Department of Audio-Visual Communication and Advertising, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Plaça Cívica, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.71222/pfj9cr93

Keywords:

Korean cinema, female perspective, male gaze, gender power relations, multimodal metaphor analysi

Abstract

The global feminist movement has evolved many times, from the first wave, which fought for fundamental rights, to the current fourth wave of feminism, which emphasizes diversity and inclusiveness, and which has made significant progress across the globe. However, the issue of gender equality has shown significant geographical differences across the region. As an important East Asian country, Korea's feminist movement has shown unique characteristics in the context of modernization and globalization. In this paper, we use multimodal metaphor analysis to select ‘The handmaiden’ (2016), a Korean female-themed film under the perspective of a male director, as a case study. This study aims to fill the gap in research on the application of multimodal metaphors in Korean women's perspective films and modern Korean feminist cinema, as well as to reveal the place of feminist issues in Korean film and television works in the international context.

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Published

04 March 2025

How to Cite

Gender Mirror: The Narrative and Metaphor of Feminist Films from the Perspective of Korean Male in “The Handmaiden”. (2025). GBP Proceedings Series, 2, 107-115. https://doi.org/10.71222/pfj9cr93